Friday, May 31, 2013

TSA Week in Review: 29 Firearms Discovered This Week (26 Loaded)

Loaded Gun (SAV)

29Firearms Discovered This Week
– Of the 29 firearms, 26 were loaded and 13 had rounds chambered. See a complete
list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

CO2 Cartridges – A total of seven CO2 cartridges
were discovered this week, so I thought that it would be appropriate for me to
explain when they are permitted to be carried with you. The FAA prohibits CO2
cartridges in both checked and carry-on bags unless they are with an inflatable
life vest. You can have up to two in the life vest and two spares. The spares
must accompany the life vest and be presented as one unit. CO2 cartridges are
also permitted for operating mechanical limbs, along with spare cylinders to
ensure an adequate supply for the journey.

Inert Grenade (LAS)

Inert Ordnance and Grenades etc. - We continue to find inert hand
grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis. Please keep in mind that if an
item looks like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited - real
or not. When these items are found at a checkpoint or in checked baggage, they
can cause significant delays in checkpoint screening. I know they are cool
novelty items, but you cannot bring them on a plane. Read here and here on why inert items cause
problems.

Two inert/novelty/replica
grenades were discovered at Las Vegas (LAS), and Houston (IAH). The novelty
grenade at IAH was in the passenger’s carry-on bag.

Stun Guns – 12 stun guns were discovered
this week in carry-on bags around the nation: Three at San Diego (SAN), two at
Atlanta (ATL), two at San Juan (SJU), and five others at Baltimore (BWI),
Denver (DEN), Honolulu (HNL), LaGuardia (LGA), and Oakland (OAK).

Items in the Strangest Places –It’s important to examine your
bags prior to traveling to ensure no prohibited items are inside. If a
prohibited item is discovered in your bag, you could be cited and quite
possibly arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this
week where prohibited items were found in strange places.

A belt buckle knife was
discovered at San Jose (SJC).

What Not to Say at an Airport – Statements like these not only
delay the people who said them but can also inconvenience many other passengers
if the checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:

When asked if she had any hazardous
materials, a passenger at San Juan stated that she had a bomb.

Unfortunately these sorts of
occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure,
it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same
time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a
passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some
cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a penalty as high as $7,500.00.
This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because
we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad
intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases,
people simply forgot they had these items.

*In order to provide a timely
weekly update, I compile my data from a preliminary report. The year-end
numbers will vary slightly (increase) from what I report in the weekly updates.
However, any monthly, midyear, or end-of-year numbers TSA provides on this blog
or elsewhere will not be estimates.

25 comments:

30 loaded firearms a week seems to be the average, doesn't it? Why is that?

I think it's time that the TSA try my suggestion of posting BIG signs at the point where you come up to the screening queue that says:

"NO GUNS! NO KNIVES! NO! BAD! NO!"

and silhouettes and pictures of prohibited items. I post this comment at the end of every week's TSA blog (don't I Bob?)

People just aren't getting the message! What's it going to take? Commercials on tv? Singing commercials on radio? TSA-sponsored pages on airline ticketing and hotel and car reservation web sites that you have to click through? How about making an example of the next idiot that tries to smuggle contraband through a TSA checkpoint? Put the so and so away for five years and make a really big deal about it. Anything so that people get the picture.

If the TSA has to "be right every time", then they're in trouble. Even John Pistole, head of the TSA, admits they have at best a 30% capture rate.

Consider that. The head of the TSA himself admits that in tests they conducted, they missed 70% of items. Items like bombs, guns, knives, etc.

They miss 70%. And yet, no hijackings.

And to the sign-making anonymous poster, let me ask you a simple question. What law does one break when accidentally carrying a gun to the airport? Not what government regulation. What law is being broken?

Considering that 30 guns were confiscated, and zero arrests happened, maybe that answer is more complicated than you think.

Still waiting for a comment or explanation from TSA concerning the lady who was bitten by a TSA canine while waiting for her baggage at the Atlanta airport. How long does it take TSA to do an investigation?

Why is it that if I buy a can of soda pop in the secure area of one airport to drink later that it is 'required to be surrendered' to the TSA when I get to the next airport? Detroit, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco - I'm talking to you!

Can we PLEASE get a review of the layouts of some of these airports and figure out why you have to go through TSA screening after having been previously screened by the TSA at a different airport?

It has been over two months since the story broke, and three since the incident occurred. Yet the TSA blog is still resolutely refusing to answer any questions or make any statements about the mistreatment of Sai by the SFO TSA personnel who felt themselves more qualified to determine Sai's medical needs than his own doctor. These TSA personnel ignored TSA policy, violated the ADA by illegally refusing him access to his (legal and policy-compliant) medical liquids, and then refused to allow him to travel with his medical liquids.

For what feels like the hundredth time, I am asking for you, Bobby, to comment on this. I understand that it doesn't fit into your normal "blame the passenger" narrative, especially since the TSA personnel involved were caught on video violating Sai's rights. I also realize that it doesn't fall into your fallback "the TSA personnel were just following policy" narrative, since Sai has very carefully documented the TSA policies that the TSA personnel felt compelled to disregard.

So I know it's hard for you. It's not the passenger's fault. The TSA personnel involved were clearly violating policy. They violated his rights and deprived him of access to his medical liquids-- there's no side-stepping it. You don't want to admit that the TSA can ever be wrong, so you're hoping it will go away.

But it will NOT go away, Bobby. I will continue to demand a response from the TSA blog on this matter until you finally muster up the courage to actually address an instance in which the TSA is blatantly, unquestionably, and undeniably WRONG.

Still waiting for a comment or explanation from TSA concerning the lady who was bitten by a TSA canine while waiting for her baggage at the Atlanta airport. How long does it take TSA to do an investigation?

Good luck with your wait. Bobby seems to have three policies with regards to statements:

In the first case, if the passenger has done absolutely anything wrong-- perhaps he filled out a form incorrectly, or he didn't comply with a TSO's "orders" quickly enough-- then Bobby will immediately react, loudly denouncing the disruptive scofflaw of a passenger for besmirching the good reputation of the noble TSA. If Bobby is feeling particularly magnanimous that day, he might concede that the passenger didn't have ill intent, but his actions were still surely dangerous and disruptive.

In the second case, if the passenger hasn't done anything wrong, but people are upset at TSA personnel blindly enforcing an obviously ineffective and pointless policy (like when they used to pat down toddlers, or when they force 90-year-old cancer patients to strip out of their adult diapers), Bobby will spring to the defense of all the TSA personnel involved. After all, they're "just following policy". That the policy is utterly indefensible will not be discussed.

In the third case-- like when a TSA-trained, TSA-owned dog handled by a TSA employee bites an innocent person, or when the TSA is caught on video blatantly violating its own policies by preventing a man from having access to his medical necessities-- Bobby will simply remain quiet. He can't blame the passenger. He can't claim that the TSA folks didn't do anything wrong. So he pretends that nothing like that has ever happened, and outright refuses to address the issue, either in the comments or in a post.

So good luck on getting a comment on the dog bite issue. Bobby will ignore you like he ignores every other major issue.

(As an example: notice that Bobby barely said anything about the open comment period for the "proposed rulemaking" dealing with the AIT scanners. He wrote a pipsqueak of a post without mentioning that the comments on the rules are only being solicited years after the rules were put in place, or that the TSA illegally refused to follow two federal court orders requiring them to have such a comment period.)

anonymous--what's up with the hatred of dogs? I'm not sure that we will ever know why the dog bit the passenger since dogs can't talk. Do you recommend hypnotherapy or even yet, waterboarding? I bet you with enough torture we can get an answer out of that dog. The reality is that the dogs have to get near the passengers to be effective, so there will always be some risk of dog bite. I got bit in the back of the neck by a German Shephard when I was a kid. That dog never told me why he bit me.

" Still waiting for a comment or explanation from TSA concerning the lady who was bitten by a TSA canine while waiting for her baggage at the Atlanta airport. "

According to CNN " Dubitsky says an Atlanta police officer was with the animal, which bit her on the stomach. " Since the Handler was an Atlanta Police Officer and not a TSA Agent, I would assume that the dog belongs to either the City Of Atlanta or Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport-not TSA. http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/05/14/woman-claims-tsa-dog-bit-her-at-atlanta-airport/2158249/

I think it is an enourmous responsibility, that shouln'd have a sucess rate, I mean It should be 100% accurate. I knew about a passenger that was found with his concealed/forgotten to remove gun on his suitcase arriving to another country from the US, and was immediately taken under custody and improsoned for possesion. Next time he will not forget to check his bags contents!

Anonymous said...anonymous--what's up with the hatred of dogs? I'm not sure that we will ever know why the dog bit the passenger since dogs can't talk. Do you recommend hypnotherapy or even yet, waterboarding? I bet you with enough torture we can get an answer out of that dog. The reality is that the dogs have to get near the passengers to be effective, so there will always be some risk of dog bite. I got bit in the back of the neck by a German Shephard when I was a kid. That dog never told me why he bit me.

So much wrong with this statement... First and foremost, the straw man.. Because Anonymous wants an explanation, he must hate dogs? Really? *I* would like an explanation, and *I* OWN dogs. Second, the lady who was bit was waiting for luggage, not going through security. There was NO reason for a TSA dog to be in that area of the airport in the first place, which is what needs explained. Finally, you end with a bunch of nonsense about talking dogs. Of course we all know dogs don't talk. And properly trained service dogs do NOT bite unless on command or over-worked. So the explanations are that this dog was not well trained, this dog was commanded to bite, or TSA abuses its dogs by over-working them. Until Bob sets the record straight, those are the three most likely explanations that I can think of.

"TSA: Can we PLEASE get "Here's how to do this" signs in the airports for the people who don't understand this basic principle?"

Clerk Anonymous, there are millions of travelers every week; there will always be anomalies in a population that large. The 30 guns caught by your and your fellow clerks, plus the 70 guns that were missed, is not an inordinately large number. Considering that there was no use of guns on planes, there was no actual threat from those guns - even when one considers that you and your fellow clerks missed approximately 100% of the guns that were deliberately concealed.

You should pay more attention to the fact that out of a population of 65,000 clerks, approximately none of you know or follow the rules of your job. Why are you concerned with something that is out of your control, while unconcerned with something that is completely within your own control - learning and following the rules of your job?